Brandon Hill Communications has been named Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy of the Year at the West of England PRide Awards.
The Bristol-based agency, launched by former Strategy PR boss Ian Muir five years ago, beat a strong field to collect gold in the hotly-contested category. The award crowned a successful evening for Brandon Hill – it also won three silver awards.
Brandon Hill’s success echoed that of two years ago when it won the Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy accolade in the awards, staged by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Silver in the Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy category went to Bristol-based PamLloyd Fresh Produce Marketing & PR, which also collected the top awards for Integrated Communications and External Newspaper or Magazine.
The Outstanding In-house PR Team award was won by Oldbury Power Station, which also notched up a second gold in the Crisis Communications category, while Brouha Marketing, based at Siston, near Bristol, collected the award for Outstanding Small Consultancy – the same award it won two years ago.
Dani Marlborough of Bristol-based Spirit won Outstanding Young Communicator.
Swindon Business News and its sister websites Bristol Business News and Bath Business News were online media partners for the awards, the only ones of their kind to showcase the best PR work in the region. The winners were announced at a sell-out black-tie dinner attended by 222 guests at the Bristol Hotel on Friday evening.
Other gold winners were Cheltenham-based Target Public Relations in the Corporate and Business Communications Award for its Magnetic Force of PR campaign; Spirit with The Grand Appeal for Cots for Tots in the Not-for-Profit category and Synergy Creative, also based in Bristol, for the Magnificent Seven in the Internal Communications category.
The Community Relations gold went to Bristol-based 3G Communications and National Grid for its work during a major pipeline construction, while gold in the public sector category was won by Gloucestershire County Council for its Meeting The Challenge campaign.
The Best Campaign under £10,000 Award went to Gloucester-based 10 Yetis PR Agency for its launch of the H20 Shower Powered Radio. JBP PR, based in Bristol, landed gold in the Consumer Relations category and Best Use of Media Relations top award went to Bath-based Geometry PR for Made in Cornwall. Geometry also walked away with the Best Use of Measurement and Evaluation gold.
Best Use of Social Media was won by Bath-based Media Safari/BitDefender for BitDefending the Nation and Barefoot Media took gold in the Best Use of Photography or Design section and Best Website
The best Internal Newspaper or Magazine trophy was lifted by Synergy Creative and Filton-based Airbus in the UK Communications Team struck gold in the Best Event category for its BAC 100 service of celebration.
Best Freelance Practitioner was Suzie Smith.
A collection was held for Pancreatic Cancer Research.
